How is small market Georgia radio doing?

[toombs]

I have been working in small market radio, in Georgia, since 1988. I am kind of curious. How are the small independent stations doing around the state? How much live radio are they doing?

At my station. I do a morning show from 6-9 with a lot of audience interaction. A midday show, 11-1, with oldies and then lots of sports play-by-play.

Having been in the business for almost 30 years, in August, I wonder what is the future of small market radio with all of the entertainment options available.

What will small market radio look like 30 years from now?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I don't have an answer to your posted question....

but that is one hell of a website, my man!

Good job.

GRC

 

[acheron1982]

Depends on the product. The popularity of 93.5 when it was listenable in Vidalia should have been a wake up call for the 6 country stations in that area. The people there are tired of the same old country stations. For years, I have heard rock would not do well in Vidalia and Dublin and I can't disagree more. Look around the country and if you are a rock fanatic, some of the best ones are in small markets and locally owned. They have more variety compared to the simulcast Clear Channel stations all across the country. I'm sure the same could be said about country but I'm not sure how you can sound unique when you have 6 other country stations in one market.

The local aspect of the station is it's only saving grace. My family, who still live in Vidalia, listen to the local stations for news and news only. After that, they flip back over to XM. In fact, as I type this, I'm speaking to one member of my family who said they don't even listen for the news anymore thanks to the ability to read on the internet.

Many of the station that are small market are family owned and the money that keeps the station funded is old money and regardless if the station tanks in ratings or not is irrelevant because the money is still there.

Again, small market may not be doing well due to economic situations but they have opportunity. I was talking with some folks in Macon in can't stand Q106, the local classic rock station owned by Clear Channel, because it plays the same old songs over and over and never digs deep. Those same people brag about the local classic rock station in Dublin and wish they could pick it up. The station in Dublin is a little risky and digs deep with their music vs playing the same stuff all the other classic rock stations play across the country.

 

[The_Dude]

Albany may not be a small market(I see it as such), but radio here isn't doing well at all. I worked as a PA for Cumulus back in 2010-2011, and most of their stations are completely automated. To me, you have to have a live body at a station to garner attention. Essentially the same for Clear Channel, with the exception of their Urban and Gospel stations. I wanted so badly to become an on-air personality for WJAD.

 

[mediawatch22]

I have been working in small market radio, in Georgia, since 1988. I am kind of curious. How are the small independent stations doing around the state? How much live radio are they doing?

At my station. I do a morning show from 6-9 with a lot of audience interaction. A midday show, 11-1, with oldies and then lots of sports play-by-play.

Having been in the business for almost 30 years, in August, I wonder what is the future of small market radio with all of the entertainment options available.

What will small market radio look like 30 years from now?

Small market radio probably won't exist 30 years from now...or big market radio for that matter.....seriously.

 

[firecop947]

It's sad. I was hoping that small market radio would find their place in the community. I worked small market GA radio from 2000 - 2006. I worked in Baxley, Albany, Savannah and Brunswick. The station in Baxley is still owned by a guy who believes in live and local. He has 100kw station that sounds good and he keeps his community informed. I was with Cumulus in Savannah and Albany and their idea of local radio is cookie cutter. When I was in Albany I programmed WKAK, back then each station had it's own PD and one or two live jocks. Now I guess it's a shell of what it once was. Too bad and so sad for the local community.

 

[toombs]

Thanks for the input. Here is an additional thought. Kids still enjoy radio if you make it interesting for them. They are in to social media and what is more social then audience interaction on the radio. Thats what I try to do on my morning show during the time in which kids are in route to school.

If you don't get the younger generation involved in radio now then who is going to listen when the people who grew up on radio are gone?

 

[The_Dude]

How do you get kids involved? You put people on the mike, of course! People who are interactive, through social media, personal appearances, and on-air! Does Cumulus care? I seriously doubt it. They strike me as more of a "as long as we make money, we can do what we want" attitude, then, when their money dries out, they leave. I wish, so badly, that there was a local owner. I would love to work for him/her.

 

[artsutton]

How do you get kids involved? You put people on the mike, of course! People who are interactive, through social media, personal appearances, and on-air! Does Cumulus care? I seriously doubt it. They strike me as more of a "as long as we make money, we can do what we want" attitude, then, when their money dries out, they leave. I wish, so badly, that there was a local owner. I would love to work for him/her.

One big part of the equation for the success of smal market radio is the condition of the small market itself. It doesn't matter how great your programming or how good your salespeople if there aren't places to buy ads. All of these chain stores which have moved into small town America, especially Walmart, do not buy local radio advertising, period. However, they end up causing a number of the businesses which do, to shut down. Same thing with banks and there has been a great consolidation of auto dealers in small town America too. Farming vendors have consolidated so instead of 10 chemical companies buying ads to reach farmers, there may be two or three. Instead of 4 tractor dealers in town, there is one offering several lines.

Vibrant small towns just 10 to 15 years ago may still be ok but the retail mix of the community has totally changed and that has really limited the revenue potential for a host of small town stations. Places like Ashburn, Sylvester, Nashville, etc just don't have enough advertisers left to support a station. Larger small towns like Thomasville, Moultrie, Americus, etc dont have enough radio advertisers left to support more than one good local radio operation. In many of these places, if it weren't for automation systems and he ability to run stations with fewer people, lots more would be dark.

 

[The_Dude]

That's just it - Wal-Mart DOES do barter, and while I realize that it's a shade of what you could get with local advertising(I've done barter, I understand the system), is it not enough? Then again, I realize the larger stores do push out smaller businesses.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

In casual conversation I have said to my friends something similar to what Art Sutton said. It has been years since I have been in the business (though I tried to acquire a station in recent years) so when I say it, it doesn't ring with authority. When Art says it, you can go to the bank with it. His bank account and solvency are on the line... every day... in the here and now.

When I travel back to my hometown for funerals and weddings and class reunions, we travel through areas where I used to go out on the street and sell radio. We climb down off the super-slab now and then and tour some of these towns and with my mouth hanging open, I mutter: "And I used to sell advertisng in THIS!" The towns are as cute or ugly as they every were, but the business district is just plain DEAD looking.

Now let me venture beyond small markets and beyond Georgia. I also travel through some much larger cities where I have worked radio, and where I thougt I wanted to work radio back in the day. It may not be quite as obvious but larger markets have also changed for radio. The big banks in town are now managed from New York or Chicago or where ever. Even in the cities the car dealerships are owned by corporations based somewhere else.... just like corporate radio. I remember being on the streets in Indianapolis when H.H. Gregg was a one store operation and guys like me walked in off the sidewalk and told our story in hopes of walking out with some of his ad dollars. (Mr. H. H. Gregg himself was on the floor of that one store!) There were something like 8 stations in town and I worked for one ranked maybe 5th or 6th. I also did business with some really corn-ball mom-and-pop operations. It may be tough finding business today in small town Georgia, but I suspect going out on the streets of Indianapolis or Louisville or Dayton today doing direct business (no agencies) with the 9t or 13th or 17th rated station in town is a nightmare compared to previous years.

Bring back the 80 acre farm (my dad had one of those) with the farmer still mumbling about wishing he had his team of horses back, bring back the hometown banks with 10 or 12 employees and the owner sitting right there in plain sight, bring back the Detroit built automobile that will have to have the engine rebuilt after 60 to 80 thousand miles, and maybe we can hope to again see radio stations with live dee-jays in little county seat towns.

Along with Art Sutton, there are other entrepreneurs across this county who continue to deliver a heroic qualit and style of radio considering the business and social conditions of our day. Find one in your area. See what he/she is doing. Make that your gold standard and don't be belly-aching about how much better they should be doing.

 

[JackieSteele]

Vibrant small towns just 10 to 15 years ago may still be ok but the retail mix of the community has totally changed and that has really limited the revenue potential for a host of small town stations. Places like Ashburn, Sylvester, Nashville, etc just don't have enough advertisers left to support a station. Larger small towns like Thomasville, Moultrie, Americus, etc dont have enough radio advertisers left to support more than one good local radio operation. In many of these places, if it weren't for automation systems and he ability to run stations with fewer people, lots more would be dark.

x1000. Even back when our cluster made an honest effort to stay live-n-local, we had to rely on automation for a good majority of the day because there's just no other way for a 1kW'er to survive. But like everything, there's a curse with the blessing. The bad thing about automation is that it becomes addictive. What started out as a way to make do in the off hours gradually crept into other dayparts. At first it was "we don't have to figure out how to pay an overnight guy," but morphed into this convoluted stream of "don't have to pay a morning guy;" "don't have to pay a sales force;" "just grab a few national dollars or a combo deal with the FM, and we'll still be in the black if there's no sales cost or talent cost."

Not that I'm a master of running radio... lord knows there's plenty of people out there who actually know what the hell they're talking about. But it always hearkens me back to the retrofuturism of the 30s-60s. The original thought was that technology and automation would mean we'd only work two hours a day. But that glowing futurism failed to count on corporate nature. If you can get everything done in ten hours a week, then corporate can cut the work force down to 25% and pile on 4x as much work on the folks that are left.

As I've said before... I worked in a radio station for about 14 years... but I only did radio for about half of them.